Mitigation of Fault Induced Delayed Voltage Recovery (FIDVR) by PV-STATCOM

Abstract

This paper presents a novel day-and-night control of large PV solar farm as STATCOM, termed PV-STATCOM, for FIDVR alleviation. The proposed control involves dynamic modulation of both reactive and real power during day, and of reactive power during night. The active and reactive power output of solar farm are based on the sensitivity of solar plant voltage to active and reactive power injections. Enhanced voltage control up to utility Transient Overvoltage Limit is utilized. Eigenvalue analysis is done to study the sensitivity of proposed controller performance to various power system and PV plant parameters. Extensive PSCAD simulation studies of FIDVR are performed in a realistic power transmission system with large-scale PV plant and comprehensive IM loads. It is shown that the proposed PV-STATCOM control: (i) mitigates FIDVR even if solar farm is located more than 100 km from motor loads, (ii) is more effective than reactive power support required by German Grid Code, (iii) is equally effective as a STATCOM connected locally at motor loads, and (iv) stabilizes motors at night which is beyond Grid Code requirements. The PV-STATCOM potentially provides significant cost savings to utilities and new revenue stream for solar plants in providing 24/7 FIDVR mitigation service.